This semester, Sociology professor Dr. David Cunningham, African-African American Studies (AFAS) professor, DR. Geoff Ward, and 18 undergraduate students began work in the Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Action Research (CRRJ) Lab. The lab is an extension of the CRRJ Clinic at Northeastern Law School, which works to investigate old cases of racially-motivated violence in the name of restorative justice.

Over the last decade, the Northeastern Clinic has been working on cases in the south and is just now moving into border states. 

Ward explained that Missouri specifically is an important site when examining the history of racial violence since it was a state that grows out of a compromise of freedom.

“Missouri is their first border state that they’re examining, largely because Geoff [Ward] and I are here,” Cunningham said. “We could provide a nice home base for them and bring students in to contribute to that work.” 

As a restorative justice clinic, their goal is not to actually solve the cases and bring them to trial, of course, since none of the perpetrators could still be alive to be prosecuted. Their goal is “reparative,” said Cunningham, as they seek acknowledgment and closure.

The Northeastern Clinic has now identified over 1000 cases of racially motivated homicide. Though they can’t prosecute, they can rectify wrongs in other ways, including altering falsified death certificates and placing historical commemorative markers. And by working with local communities, they work to build a dialogue around the events in the cases. CRRJ can also connect with descendants hurt by this violence. This sort of restorative justice technique is incredibly unique and was really spearheaded by the CRRJ clinic.

After working together at the Northeastern Clinic for over 15 years, Cunningham and Ward both found themselves at Washington University and decided to bring the project here. The “lab” is more of an imagined space, since meeting locations vary from the sociology suite, Siegle Hall, and the Special Collections part of Olin Library. Starting in January, they gathered students however they could to be the first cohort working in the CRRJ Lab. 

The WashU lab differs from the Northeastern clinic mainly by the type of work that’s done by each team. At the Northeastern Law School, law students are “very much working within a law school model,” Cunningham said. This means using legal tools and techniques to solve the cases. At WashU, however, they are more interested in bringing a greater historical understanding of the context of the times around the cases. This means understanding the inner workings of police and state agencies, for example, to see how it was possible that these acts of violence were not investigated in those times. 

Tasked with investigating 27 Missouri cases between 1930 and 1948, the students are split into three teams: St. Louis, Kansas City, and rural Missouri towns. The students’ work ranges from archival and administrative work to physically finding documents that can’t be accessed from Boston in places like courthouses around the state. 

While the legal work does not lead to prosecution, Ward and Cunningham see immense value in the program’s mission. 

“Restorative justice not only focuses on repairing the harm of an offense to the victim but also in relation to the society itself … how crimes of violence and so forth adversely impact the social fabric itself,”  Ward said. 

It’s also important to the professors that students be exposed to this kind of fieldwork. 

He called their previous work with Northeastern more “sporadic,” explaining how he was grateful for the ability to now have a coordinated effort with students. 

“It’s really satisfying to work with WashU students who are committed to these kinds of issues … Getting both students and ourselves out into these spaces to more directly engage with where these things occurred is really important,” Ward said.

This direct exposure brings to life the kind of things that students can read about in books. Students are also encouraged to think outside of the box in other ways, including how they present their research, inspiring them to pursue different mediums like short films. 

This sort of non-traditional work is very initiative-driven. It’s not a class or a club, but something students must continue to work on in their own time. 

In the last few weeks, students have “prepared proposals for how they would contribute to the documentation and the potential restorative justice strategies around specific cases,” Ward said. Students are free to choose a specific documentation interest, such as the history of the Christian Nationalist Party, and use it to build an understanding of the atmosphere around the cold cases.

“It might help us understand a little bit more about some of the people implicated in the case, whether it be the perpetrators or state actors who withhold their investigative power and effectively exculpate [those perpetrators],” Ward said. The next steps are to consolidate those proposals into 3-5 projects that can be worked on throughout the next academic year.

As the semester wraps up at both Northeastern, one of the biggest tasks is preparing transition memos about each case for the next class of law students to take over. WashU students’ research on these cases, Ward says, is certainly included in those memos. 

Looking ahead to next year, both Cunningham and  Ward want to use those memos to continue the lab and recruit more students for the research. They aim to start in the fall rather than the spring to allow more time for projects.

Ward emphasized what this project means to him personally and as a sociologist, calling it an opportunity to pay respect to people who were denied respect. 

“One of the most important legacies of the history of racist violence,” Ward said, “is that it has socialized generations to trivialize the disregard of African-Americans generally, and specifically disregard their human and civil rights.” 

“We can use these cases of retrospective justice to see deeper commitments today and into the future,” Ward said. “This isn’t just about doing good for individuals. It’s really about cultivating the political culture we need to promote a future where there is equal justice.”